I worked a 12-hour night shift at the local Celestica plant and got home a little around 7am Central Time that morning. I watched some of the morning shows, might have had some breakfast, and at some time before 7:46am, I turned off the TV and went to bed.
At approximately 4:20pm Central time, I woke up. I had the cable box connected to the TV in my bedroom, and in the corner of the display was a red dot. This typically meant that there was a pay-per-view event schedule change or some other important announcement from the cable company. I don't remember exactly what it said, but it didn't mention any PPV scheduling changes.
I flipped on MSNBC to find Ashleigh Banfield interviewing a woman just as World Trade Center Tower 7 collapsed behind them.
I blinked.
I blinked hard, but there was no coming out of this surreal dream.
I caught up on what I could for the next two hours before going into work. A TV had been set up in the lone breakroom, but we still got in, as best we could, a full night's work. A couple of the guys I worked with were members of the National Guard and they were fired up, ready to go fight.
But whom? I asked.
It didn't help that a good chunck of our workforce were Somali, because there was a quiet tension in the air for a few months afterwards. No incidents, just that small thread of tension, which faded after time. Low flying planes would eventually worry me more than my coworkers would.
